Calling the Stork

I tried to reply, but I was crying at my good fortune to have found such a good man. Sitting up, he swung his legs off the edge of the bed, keeping the stump covered, and then pulled me toward him. He wiped my cheeks with his scarred fingers.

"'Mary Flynn O'Grady, answer me this, would you live in that hovel with me?'

"Yes, Captain," I whispered. "Anywhere. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people."

"Said Ruth to Naomi and my dear Mary to me," he replied, warming my heart even more at him catching my Biblical reference. "Mary? I may call you Mary, yes?"

On receiving my rather jubilant nod, he continued, "Mary, my dear, we won't be living in a hovel. No, our home will be warm and beautiful, a happy place filled with our love and our children. I'll be joining a law firm as soon as I pass the bar exam after returning home and we'll never be cold or hungry and you'll never want for anything."

"Really? You're telling me the truth? You're not just a pilot?" I asked in surprise.

He chuckled. "Yes, dear, it's all the truth. I'm a lawyer by profession--I told you I had to know what the big words meant. As for being a pilot, I learned to fly for the thrill of it shortly before the war, but knew there was no money in it, and after my dust-up, no more thrill either, I'm afraid."

I was so happy that I ignored his teasing and his grin, falling into his arms and tasting his lips on mine for the first time.

There was, Vivian told me afterward, a great deal of happy shouting, clapping, and whistling ("hoots and hollers" according to Deb in her southern twang), but I didn't hear any of that, concentrating only on Captain Walsh's lips, feeling his loving embrace, and hearing my heart beat so loudly it felt as if it would explode in happiness.

His mustache tickled me a bit, but I didn't mind, knowing it was his and that now it was mine to share with him. Our noses touched, a gentle graze, adding to his presence, making me smile, at least in my soul, even more.

I looked into his eyes as he did into mine but the blissful feeling we were enjoying was so intense that they drifted closed together, shutting out the last remnant of the outside world, allowing us to be alone together despite the other eleven men in his ward, Viv, Deb, and any other guests we may have attracted.

The clock would probably disagree but time stood still to me as we held each other, my body tingling all over at his touch and the pleasure of our gentle exploration. I think we finally heard the commotion around us at the same time, with our eyes opening to each other first and then to the crowd around us. My face probably turned bright red in embarrassment, but he grinned at me and touched the tip of my nose with his index finger before gently flicking it down. I grinned back and hugged him again as the crowd shouted some more.

I don't know what happened to the bottle of brandy I'd taken; I didn't think of it again until I recorded these happiest of words late this evening. Perhaps the rightful owner retrieved it during our kiss or maybe one of the men of the captain's ward picked it up and enjoyed it later that afternoon while I was taking care of those in my other ward. I'll never know but since I don't like brandy anyway and since Captain Walsh said nothing about it despite having seen it, maybe he was thinking happier thoughts like me.

***

A number of blank pages follow.

***

At home in Philadelphia, Monday, July 7, 1919

I haven't written in many months due to spending time with Leo as he completed his recovery and learned to walk with his prosthesis and then due to the hours and hours writing letters to him and responding to his. I've saved some blank pages that I may fill with recollections someday, but now that I'm so enjoying living in the present, maybe not.

Leo visited today after the two of us have been apart for nearly two months. It was a long and painful separation, but we've endured it and have agreed that we still love each other, each with all our heart, and that it will be the last. Leo has taken a room here in town and will complete his studies for the Ohio bar exam so we can be together until he has to head home for the test. After that...

Ma invited Leo to dinner tomorrow evening and she told me that I would be doing the cooking. Leo's going to ask Pa's permission for us to court. If Pa declines, I don't know what I'll do, particularly after we've been together for so long and seeing each other unofficially. The more I think of it, the more nervous I become, but I think Pa will understand.

I pray he does.

***

Saturday, July 12, 1919

Writing on Sunday morning before mass.

Today was my birthday, and for the first time in three years I'm home, I'm happy, and I know what the future holds for me, for us. Pa gave his blessing on our courtship earlier in the week, so I spent the whole afternoon with Leo. Ma appointed Clara as our chaperone so she could prepare a special dinner for us, and my little sister took great delight in spying on us and making sure we didn't get too close together.

"Want to lose her for a bit?" he whispered.

"Definitely," I replied.

Leo timed it just right, we lost her at a street crossing, and hid as she went by looking for us. We walked to the park and spent the next hour talking before I decided I'd waited long enough and kissed him. We spent a most pleasant hour in a secluded spot, hugging and kissing, while I fought the urge to do more. As we did, I could feel Leo's desire against me, most prominent and apparently as urgent as my own.

Fortunately, we were taking a short break from our necking when Clara, as zealous in her chaperone duty as a hound on a scent, located us and slipped up behind us as silent as a cat.

I swear that girl needs a bell.

***

Saturday, September 20, 1919

Leo came for dinner again tonight and afterward he asked to speak to Pa.

Pa gave his blessing and Leo asked me to marry him a few minutes later in front of the whole family!

I said yes and then kissed him like a movie starlet on the screen right there in front of them all. Ma looked so happy for me and Pa looked proud and possibly even amused, but Clara looked quite uncomfortable at our display. I love my little sister so much, but as much of a pain as she's been with her chaperone duty, I hope her knickers were every bit as wet as mine were when we finished!

***

Saturday, November 29, 1919

(written on the Pennsylvania RR's Dominion Express train bound for Buffalo on Sunday, November 30, 1919, since I was otherwise occupied last evening when I would normally record the events of the day)

Captain Leonard Newman Walsh and I married today in Philadelphia. Mom (she told me recently that I should be a bit more formal, being married to a lawyer and all, but not too formal!) made me the most beautiful wedding dress, white with lace and beads, and Clara helped me with my hair and makeup and so much today as my Maid of Honor. Christy Herbert served as my bridesmaid and was on her best behavior, spending the reception with a good looking young man about our age.

I was sad that Vivian wasn't able to attend, but the most recent letter I have from her says that she and her beloved Dr. Maloof are quite happy together in England and will be expecting their firstborn in January.

Our lives change today, with Leo taking me as his wife and me taking him as my husband. We look forward to long and happy lives together, but we've agreed to try to wait a bit before adding any children to our family. After Viv's rather shocking whispered tales of her wedding night, she looked forward to a long period with Joseph "practicing at perfecting their union" many, many times she said, but I have to laugh at her planning and the end result. They probably succeeded in calling the stork that very first night and her morning sickness followed in short order. After all of her naughtiness beforehand, I have to smile about that and hope that Leo and I can avoid the stork's attention for at least a little while.

I'm going to miss my little sister (despite the fact that she has a couple of inches and a few pounds on me now) so I gave her a big hug and kiss and did the same with my parents before we left for the Bellevue-Stratton Hotel, said to be one of the best in the world. Mrs. Walsh, Leo's mother, gave us the stay as part of our honeymoon trip. We'll see her and stay at her home in Columbus after our time at Niagara Falls. We plan to search for a home to purchase there and then see my parents and Clara again in a few weeks when we return before moving to Columbus for Leo's new job in January.

One final word before we reach our stop in Sunbury. It is so much easier to write on a train than on a ship.

***

Leo lies sleeping next to me in our Pullman compartment this afternoon while I continue my writing about our wedding day and our train continues its drive for Buffalo. I encouraged him to get all the rest he could today since he probably wouldn't get much again tonight.

I write this part with great hesitation, but Mom said that I should look fondly on our wedding night all the days of my life, so I record my recollections now as I did so often during my days leading up to it. I hope that these words will help me recall the events with great clarity, perhaps I'll even share them with Leo when we are old and gray. Of course, by writing these most intimate words, I ensure that this journal will need to be kept under lock and key until all of our children, however many that may someday be, are married and well beyond the confines of our walls, and then burned to ashes after Leo and I are no longer here to remind ourselves of this most special time.

Simply put, our wedding night was the most amazing evening of my life. Vivian's marital recollections as conveyed by her whispers to me and in her letters, Christy's bawdy though borderline tales that she told us in person in England, and the loving instructions Mom gave me prepared me as much as possible for our marriage bed, but I was still surprised at Leo's love, his tenderness, and his attention to my up-to-then pent-up but not completely understood needs.

We enjoyed dinner together in the restaurant and then he walked me, arm-in-arm, to our suite at the Bellevue-Stratton. After unlocking and opening the door, he turned to me and said, "Put your arm around my neck, Sweetheart."

"No, Leo! You can't pick me up! Your leg!"

"My missing leg, you mean," he teased. "Seriously, I can do this. I've been practicing."

I knew he'd been going to the YMCA to exercise and lift weights several days each week to continue rebuilding his strength and muscle tone, so I guessed that was what he meant. Sure enough, he picked me up and carried me inside like I was his precious cargo before easing me down in a chair. Since my arm was already around his neck, I pulled him close after I was seated and gave him a kiss. He grinned at me and then kissed me back.

With him standing in front and bent down toward me, I reached forward to pull him closer. My hands, which I'd fastidiously tried to keep above his waist during our courtship, brushed something, but instead of pulling it away as I'd done on the rare occasion when we accidentally connected during our courting, this time I lingered, feeling his manhood through his trousers.

Since I was his nurse during the early days of his recuperation when he had little ability to care for his personal needs, I'd seen his penis on multiple occasions in the course of his hospitalization and even washed it during the early days of his recuperation, but I'd never touched it when so fully erect or even lingered over it when there was some degree of excitement. This time, though, I rubbed it, feeling the outline and the swelling taking place, knowing that there would be no going back.

"May I remove these?" I asked, reaching for the button at the waist of his trousers.

"Perhaps if we move to the bed?" There was a subtle glance to his missing foot as he said it.

"Of course," I replied, embarrassed that I'd forgotten his leg for the moment and how it might affect what we were about to do.

Hand in hand, we moved to the bed and he looked at me with a degree of consternation that I rarely witnessed from him.

"Mary, my false leg...may I remove it without it bothering you?"

"Leo, as your nurse, I knew your body when it was in the worst condition imaginable, yet it didn't bother me then. Well, more than a little, anyway."

He smiled and nodded, knowing what I meant. The first glance had been a surprise and a degree of revulsion at his horrible condition (balanced with a great compassion, both for the pain and suffering he'd endured to get to that point and the long road ahead of him to return to something approximating a normal life) had remained for a while as I struggled to get used to the sight. Fortunately, I'd been with him throughout that process, so I knew his body better than anyone alive other than himself. Now I know there is so much more to Leo than the damage he'd suffered and I love him as he is rather than how he once was.

To make things easier, Leo sat on the side of the bed and I stood in front of him, undoing the buttons on his shirt first while looking into his eyes, the love and yearning in my eyes clearly mirrored in his. As I removed his shirt, I glanced at his physique, his muscles, so atrophied during his early months at The Manor, had been restored and strengthened in the months since, with only the scars on his hands and lower arms and the missing phalanges in the two fingers of his right hand revealing what he'd endured.

"No, my turn now," he countered when I again reached for the button on his pants.

With great care, he loosened the belt that Mom had tied on the side when she and Clara dressed me for our departure after the reception and then began undoing the hidden buttons on the front of my dress. Since I wasn't home to complete my trousseau during the war, she'd taken it on herself to make me several beautiful nightgowns and robes, and had given me a hint on which to wear on our wedding night. After I returned home, we spent a lot of time sewing together since Clara still hated it so much, thereby giving us a chance to talk as adults without Clara hearing. Mom made me a number of beautiful new dresses that rivaled those available in Paris or London during those sessions. She'd also bought me a few sets of matching underwear during a trip to Wannamaker's department store.

"Trust me, Mary, and don't try to understand. Men like to see us in such things," she whispered to me as we shopped.

"Not Pa, surely?" I replied, shaking my head in denial.

"Your dad especially," she giggled as she nodded.

Instead of Leo seeing me in one of those silky nightgowns, he saw me in the dress I'd worn following the reception and through dinner and which now he so desperately wanted to remove from me. It was one of those Mom made special for me, with concealed buttons down the front so I'd be able to remove it without assistance so I could put on that special nightgown I'd now realized I wouldn't need this evening. With him removing my dress for me, I was happy for the underwear she'd purchased for me.

The unbuttoning complete, Leo's fingers touched my neck on each side with great delicacy before slipping them into the collar and sliding down the slopes of my shoulders. I relished his touch on my skin as he did it, but when the dress began to gap open, I felt a momentary panic and clutched at it, keeping it from separating further.

"Mary, are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm nervous. I've never been so...so exposed."

He nodded and pulled me closer, kissing my right collar bone and then my left, a short reassuring buss to each, before setting his lips in that little spot between the clavicle, the neck, and the shoulder. Miss Nabelli called it the supraclavicular fossa or something like that in our anatomy class in nursing school, but it's one of those spots no one remembers or cares about in the least...until someone starts kissing it.

Leo's kisses excited me and my eyes closed and breath shortened as he covered every square inch of that area with kiss after kiss after kiss. Then he stopped, sucking a bit of my skin between his lips, almost nursing on it as he moved up toward my neck, massaging my pale skin between my lips as if making it his own. It was, I realized, and my hand opened and slipped away from the opening, letting him push the dress a little more, leading it to slip away from my shoulders without warning.

I tensed as it fell, being exposed to him. He gave my collarbone one more kiss before sitting straight and gasping.

"What's wrong?" I asked, fearful of what he'd seen, but he shook his head.

"Absolutely nothing," he replied. "Mary, you are perfection personified, your skin so smooth, so soft. So white and unblemished, like alabaster."

His praise helped calm me a bit, but fortunately I didn't recall Mrs. Cruickshank's words from so many years before at that moment or I would have turned bright red from head to toe, making alabaster a thing of the past.

His hands explored my body, my back, my sides, and the bumps over my ribs, letting me feel his loving touch, before letting me remove my brassiere. I held the cups over my tits for a moment until he nodded, showing he both approved and desired them, and I let it fall away. While his eyes feasted on them, his hands continued their loving touches as before, avoiding grasping them as I'd been led to expect. He leaned in and gave a gentle kiss to one and then the other, before smiling at his prizes and then finally moving his hands in to caress me. I was so nervous as he neared them, but his gentle movements, stroking them before taking them more firmly, calmed me, and then he was circling my nipples, causing them to plump to points before he kissed the first one again, this time sucking it between his lips and into his mouth.

I moaned like I've never moaned before at that, and then he did it again with the other. I felt weak in the knees but he slipped his arms around me and pulled me closer as he took turns kissing and playing with my nipples, making each harder in turn than I've ever before experienced.

His hands cupped my ass and pulled me closer toward him before he resumed his kissing while looking up into my eyes with all the love and affection I could ever imagine. On giving my left nip a particularly invigorating suckle, I was sad when he let it slip from his lips, but he said, "Mary, may I? Your undies?"

As nervous as I'd been about the dress and then the brassiere, I suppose he wanted to put me at ease before removing my knickers, as form fitting as these were, the last vestige of my modesty, but considering what his mouth was doing to my tits and the ring on my finger, modesty be damned, I wanted it all. I nodded with a grin while trying to keep from moaning too loudly.

Then they were gone, sliding down my legs like water over the Falls I was so looking forward to seeing. He cupped my butt cheeks again, but this time lower and I squirmed to feel his fingers between my legs.

He withdrew as quickly as he'd done it though, leaving me at a near pout, so excited by what he was doing to me but needing more. If he wasn't going to cooperate, then I would have to take matters into my own hands. His fingers massaged my buttocks and his lips were kissing my breasts as I stood moaning in front of him, so I reached in and popped the button on his pants before he realized what I was doing.

He drew back then and nodded to me with a smile before allowing me to unbutton his fly. When the buttons were undone, he raised up and let me pull his pants down, but, being in a bit of a hurry, I went for it all, having undone the button to his undies, too, and pulled it all down at once.